Among all the other laughs of the Petraeus scandal is the scandalously flawed method the lovers used to hide their email correspondence. (And this guy was the nation’s top intelligence officer?) The Electronic Frontier Foundation has analysis and advice. So does the ACLU. (Tip o’ hat to JG) It’s pretty amazing what the FBI went through to trace emails that probably weren’t even illegal — and the kind of data they had fingertip access to (e.g. hotel guest registers).

And here’s 1984 talk by the late, great Karl Hess — speechwriter, philosopher, tax resister, welder, and cabinetmaker — on the role of communities in freedom (with thanks to R for the find).

When I was growing as a libertarian, nobody influenced me as much as Hess (though it’s hard to say in retrospect how much was influence and how much was simply recognizing spiritual kinship). The thing that set him apart from other early-modern freedom movement greats was that he put the emphasis on living everything he preached, even when it made for a precarious & perilous existence.

8 Responses to “Friday links and videos”

Thanks for the vid of Hess. I’m going to watch it today. After listening to RP’s speech, I felt like the last/only virtuous man in D.C. has left the building. Now it is truly Mordor on the Potomac, with no exceptions.

Even though Petraeus was director of the CIA, he was far from being a top Intelligence Officer. He doesn’t even make the requirement for an intelligent officer IMHO. He was a General who’s course had run its course and placed in charge of the CIA instead of being retired. I think the administration did not want the possibility of Petraeus showing up on a political ticket, or as a vocal critic of foreign policy on some network or another, so coopted him with the CIA appointment. I truly believe they deserved each other.

RE: What it takes for a Law Exemption (see key quote) Officer to lose his job.

Remember Canton, OH’s lunatic cop Daniel Harless (noted for _repeatedly_ threatening to kill people on camera)? He’s been on paid vacation for the past year and a half. Now he gets to go back to work.

Key Quote: ” ‘What needs to be understood is (there’s) no rule that says an officer (cannot) or should not make threats,’ [Michael Piotrowski, an attorney with the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio] said.”

“President Alvaro Colom allowed the United Nations to carry out an investigation and refused to resign, because it turns out that the YouTube comments section isn’t grounds for an impeachment.”

Correct Matt on all counts. Right after Obama was elected there were all kinds of rumors in the press that the Good General was going to run for office. This man loves being in the public eye. Patraeus was notorious for his “off the record” schmoozing of the press which broke every operation security manual in the military, so its hardly a surprise that he would end up where he did. The Semi Good General couldn’t get an interview with a CIA recruiter let alone work as a field agent. Thomas Ricks of the WP was known to bath with Patraeus. ;)

I loved hearing Karl’s Old Style Virginia gentleman’s accent again. Being born and raised in DC area it was his “native tongue”. I always put more weight into Karl’s ideas and practices more than some others I could name who were all academics, rich from birth oligarchs, or think tank types. They could write books and write speeches, appear at symposia but they’d flat out fail if they had to run a business, build a house, or contend with making a “cash only” living for the final decades of his life without starving like Hess managed to. Liberty in theory vs. liberty in practice.